Effects of Migration and Industrialization on Health and Families in Panzhihua, China

自20世纪80年代以来，中国城市的农民工人数估计在任何时候都有一亿人，比任何一个欧洲国家的总人口还多。其中大多数是返回原籍社区的临时移民。预计对这些原籍地的个人、家庭和社区的影响将是深远和多方面的。本项目将对中国四川省攀枝花市三个农村社区的300户家庭进行调查，从个人、家庭和社区三个层面描述和解释近期社区劳动力迁移的影响。在个人层面上，这项研究将审查移徙对健康的影响以及因接触城市社会而产生的价值观变化。在家庭一级，它将审查家庭经济、生育行为和婚姻习俗的变化。在社区一级，它将审查社区领导和社区内阶级分层的变化。这项研究将以1988年PI与四川大学和攀枝花文物局合作进行的关于家庭经济、家庭组织、个人教育和劳动史以及个人生育史的调查研究为基础。有机会回到上世纪80年代末研究过的社区，看看自从劳动力迁移变得普遍以来发生了什么变化，这是一个难得的机会，可以在已知的社区过去现实背景下观察移民的影响。此外，由于这三个社区是如此不同，而且这些差异是如此有案可查，我们可以理解一个普遍的社会现象，如移民，是如何以不同的方式影响不同的社区的。该研究的更广泛影响与媒体和国际组织对中国工厂工人工作条件的关注有关，他们为什么迁移，他们的迁移，他们赚的钱，以及他们返回村庄对他们的生活和家人的生活有什么影响。考虑到影响的广泛性，我们应该更好地制定对华投资政策和国际劳动关系政策。此外，由于被研究的三个村庄中有两个居住着少数民族，研究这些移民在移民经历后是否更多或更少地融入了中国社会，将有助于评估种族紧张局势增加或减少的可能性，这也是当今中国政府的一个主要担忧。

Since the 1980s, the number of rural-to-urban migrants in China's cities has been estimated at one hundred million at any one time, i.e. more than the total population of any European country. Most of these are temporary migrants who return to their communities of origin. The effects on individuals, families, and communities in these places of origin are expected to be far-reaching and many-sided. This project will survey 300 households in three rural communities in Panzhihua Municipality, Sichuan Province, China, in order to describe and explain effects of recent labor migration from the communities at the individual, family, and community levels. At the individual level, the research will examine the health effects of migration and the changes in values stemming from exposure to urban society. At the family level, it will examine changes in family economy, in reproductive behavior, and in marriage practices. At the community level, it will examine changes in community leadership and in class stratification within the communities. The research will build upon previous survey research about family economy, family organization, individual educational and labor histories, and individual reproductive histories conducted in 1988 by the PI in collaboration with Sichuan University and the Panzhihua Artifacts Bureau.The opportunity to return to communities that were studied in the late 1980s and to see what has changed since labor migration has become common presents a rare chance to observe migration effects against a known background of the communities' previous realities. In addition, because the three communities are so different, and because there differences are so well-documented, we can come to understand how a general social phenomenon such as migration has effected different communities differently.The broader impacts of the research are related to the attention paid in the press and by international organizations to the working conditions of Chinese factory laborers, why they migrate and what effect their migration, the money they earn, and their return to their villages has on their lives and their families' lives. Knowing the broad range of effects, we should be better able to formulate policies toward investment in China and toward international labor relations. In addition, since two of the three villages to be studied are populated by members of minority ethnic groups, study of whether these migrants feel more or less integrated into Chinese society after their migration experience will help gauge the potential for increase or reduction of ethnic tensions, which are also a major worry for today's Chinese state.